The new cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program by the inventor. The new variety, hereinafter referred to as ‘ILEXFARROWTRACEY’ was selected from an open-pollination breeding program conducted during 2007. The seed parent is Ilex glabra ‘Shamrock’, unpatented. The pollen parent is unidentified. The novel variety was discovered in a commercial nursery in Warwick, Md. during 2008.
After identifying the new variety as a potentially interesting selection, first asexual propagation of ‘ILEXFARROWTRACEY’ occurred by softwood cuttings at a commercial nursery in Warwick, Md. in June 2009. The inventor continued controlled testing and asexual propagation, assessing stability of the unique characteristics of this variety. Eight generations have been asexually reproduced and have shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type.